Master your email inbox before the new year

How many messages are in your e-mail inbox? I’m betting it’s north of 300. We all get behind sometimes, and just before the new year is a great time to get it all under control, so you can start fresh on Jan. 1.

Inbox zero

Some e-mailers maintain a completely fresh, empty inbox. They do this by addressing each and every message when they sit down to handle e-mail, until their inbox is back to zero — hence the now-popularized term “inbox zero.”

There are a few ways of going about this. One slightly impractical but sure way to do it is to have an e-mail address that literally no one knows about, or to not have e-mail at all. Failing that, you’ll want a system, perhaps like the one put forth in the famous David Allen productivity book “Getting Things Done.”

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Allen’s strategy involves immediately determining whether something can be dealt with quickly or not. If so, deal with it. If not, categorize it and file it in a system you know you’ll check. The more you use it, the more you’ll trust it — and the less time you’ll spend checking and worrying about e-mail.

Mailbox app

Want to outsource that system? So do other people. That’s why Mailbox is one of the most popular iPhone apps after nearly a year on the market. The app’s designers thought about the e-mail inbox as it’s used now — as a catch-all, and on-the-go. Simple swipe gestures make processing e-mail a breeze, and users can “snooze” messages for reminders at specific times later in the day, acknowledging that we all rely on our smartphones more now than ever.

But maybe you don’t want a total e-mail overhaul. For those who just need a tuneup, I saw a great tip recently — clear e-mails you intend to respond to out of your inbox by starting replies and saving them to draft.

That one step will keep your inbox cleaner and give you a headstart on handling e-mails when you feel like responding. You may even find that just starting the replies helps them flow a little faster, too.